Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi opened up about her kids’ heartbreaking reaction to her cervical cancer diagnosis.
“[My kids] keep asking, ‘Are you dying?’” Polizzi, 38, said during her Thursday, April 23, appearance on Good Morning America. “And I’m like, ‘No, I’m not dying, I’m just sick. And I need to figure it out and then Mommy will be fine.’”
Polizzi, who shares kids Lorenzo, 13, Giovanna, 11, and Angelo, 6, with husband Jionni LaValle, also revealed her Jersey Shore costars “were freaking out” when she told them about her stage I cervical cancer diagnosis.
“I consider them my brothers and sisters,” she continued. “I feel like us as a cast, we always said we’ll continue filming until we’re in a nursing home.”
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Polizzi continued: “It’s not over for us. … I’m so glad that [Jersey Shore] happened because I can’t picture my life as anything else.”
The reality star rose to fame on Jersey Shore, which premiered in 2009. More recently, Polizzi has used her platform to discuss her health journey.
“I feel like I need to share it because nobody talks about [cervical cancer],” she continued on Thursday. “I was terrified [when I found out]. I was hysterically crying in my car, like, ‘What am I gonna do? I have three kids. I gotta do my will.’ … I’m like, thinking about all these things.”
Polizzi admitted that she had been “putting off” her recommended appointments, adding, “I didn’t like it. … I do [have a lot of regret]. Like, ‘Why were you so scared?’ Now we’re not putting off any more appointments.”
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While discussing her treatment plan, which includes a hysterectomy to remove her uterus, Polizzi admitted she was “scared.”
“I hate [the idea of getting a hysterectomy]. When he first said we have to do this or it’s gonna escalate to stage II — I know I’m done with kids, just knowing that you can’t, I don’t know, it made me feel like I’m not a mom,” she explained. “Even though I’m done.”
Polizzi initially went public with her diagnosis in February. At the time, Polizzi revealed she had a biopsy and urged others to go to their annual doctor’s visits.
“That’s why I’m literally telling you guys to get your Pap smears done. I’m 38 years old. I’ve been struggling with abnormal Pap smears for like, three, four years now,” she said in a TikTok. “And now look at me, and instead of just, like, putting it off because I didn’t want to go, and it hurt and I was scared, no, I just went and did it, [and] cancer’s in there, and it’s only stage I and it’s curable.”
